We would like to give a tremendous thank you to the new juice bar Bourne Awesome which has just opened in Bournemouth square selling amazing fresh and healthy juices and smoothies for everyone to enjoy. As their focus on healthy outdoor lifestyles aligns well with what we aim to promote, Bourne Awesome has kindly decided to donate 20% of all their profits to our cause in creating healthier green spaces in the Bournemouth area for everyone to enjoy.

The Bourne Awesome Director Mark Cribb spoke about his new business saying, “We’re really excited to be launching the Bourne Awesome stand in Bournemouth square selling locally produced fruit and vegetables and making lots of yummy fresh juices. We’re pleased to be working with the Bournemouth Parks Foundation, a local charity who are enhancing our parks both now and for future generations. We’ll be donating 20% of our profits to the Foundation so they can keep doing awesome stuff in our parks.”

Bourne Awesome is helping to promote all components of living a healthier and greener life with juice bottles made from recycled plastic. They are also encouraging customers to bring their own containers to receive 20p off your juice and help reduce waste for a greener planet.

So why not head down to Bournemouth square located near the NatWest Bank for a delicious fresh juice and help maintain our local parks! Don’t forget your own container though!

We are selling environmentally friendly bio-degradable poo bogs to ensure you are disposing of your dog’s business in our parks in the right way. They are suitable for all dog sizes and are easy to use with tie handles making them easy to tie and hold onto.

We are selling them for £2 per pack of 100 bags and they can be bought at any library in the Bournemouth area. You can find your nearest library here.

The profits made from these bags will be used to help keep our beautiful parks in great shape for everyone (people and dogs) to enjoy!

Our drinking fountain campaign is building momentum with the second dispenser having just been fitted at Kings Park. The design varies from the one fitted at Hengistbury Head as this one’s located indoors, it also shows how many litres of water have been used, helping to keep our parks plastic free.

Kings Park is a hub of thirsty work, it’s home to Bournemouth Athletics Club and hosts regular competitions and events. Paul Mitchell, Bournemouth’s Sports and Recreation Development Manager said “Thanks to Bournemouth Parks Foundation for donating this much needed water fountain within the cafe at the Kings Park Athletics Centre. The dispenser will be widely used by both the athletics club, a large number of participants from schools and the 600 plus people we have joining us for parkrun each Saturday. The read out on the dispenser shows every time a litre of water has been dispensed into a reusable bottle, so it’s helping to eliminate plastic too”

Cathi Farrer, Bournemouth Parks Foundation Manager, said “Our water fountain campaign is growing rapidly as this the second fountain we’ve installed into Bournemouth’s parks. It is something you often see abroad and now Bournemouth Parks Foundation has set the ball rolling locally. The facility helps to provide a sustainable way to enjoy our parks and we want to see them become common place.”

With two fountains installed and another two confirmed at Winton’s Recreation Ground and Slades Farm, we are fundraising for a fifth for Fisherman’s Walk. If you would like to donate, you can do so here.

The past few months I have been volunteering with Bournemouth Parks Foundation specifically as a marketing volunteer to help this local charity fundraise and market its many projects benefitting the community. As a current Bournemouth university masters student studying marketing tourism I was looking to gain some greater hands on experience in the marketing field. I can honestly say having only been volunteering for just over a month and a half I have already gained a great deal of practical knowledge in the field and have been able to directly help them raise £1699 to build a new aviary in Bournemouth’s lower gardens. This has been the project I have been focusing on and have been able to contribute to the fundraising through creating social media posts, writing up email newsletters on the subject and sending a press release to the local media to help raise awareness.

The concept we used to raise this money was centred around the charitable campaign known as Giving Tuesday which this year was on November 27th. The campaign is strategically located close to the well known Black Friday as an alternative to buying and instead being a way to put that money towards a worthy cause benefitting one’s community. Alongside my social media posts and emails Bournemouth Parks Foundation also created a short video about the aviary, this helped the charity almost reach halfway towards its fundraising goal of £200,000.

It feels incredible to see how the couple of hours spent each week at the Bournemouth Parks Foundation’s office has been able to contribute so greatly in such a brief time. Now that Giving Tuesday is passed we are looking for new methods for fundraising for the aviary and I have begun to work on some more fundraising action to help the charity reach its goal.

I am looking forward to what there is in store for the new year as volunteering here so far has been a wonderful experience especially working alongside the very welcoming and friendly staff of Bournemouth Parks Foundation.

One of our marketing volunteers, Annie Vencl, braved the Autumn weather, put on her muddy boots and experienced her first Parks in Mind session. Read her blog below to see what she learnt during her day.

I arrived at Horseshoe common and began chatting with the other people that had turned up. Peter, the organiser of parks in mind made sure everyone was introduced and we started walking up together to find a suitable place to make a clearing in the wooded area.

Horseshoe common looked the best I’d ever seen it, turning shades of oranges and reds in the autumn. I started to give the place appreciation I’d never stopped and given it before, the people around me and the thought that we were going to maintain the park made me notice how lucky we were to have it. Peter pointed out not many towns could say they had a miniature woodland imbedded in the centre of town!

A quick introduction was made to explain that today we’d be clearing a patch within the woodland to increase the diversity of vegetation that could grow in the park. By creating a glade, we were mimicking what would happen in nature, which Peter said is exactly what conservation is about. We began to move debris and chop down dominant tree species which will then give way to species that have trouble competing to grow.

As we shifted, chopped and raked you could really see the progression we were making. We all worked at our own pace but there was a sense of a team as we all together. Racking our clearing right up to the path was the perfect place to stop for tea and coffee. Peter had a gas fired stove he boiled up and we had tea and biscuits whilst getting to know each other. This part of the day really made me think how rarely we are without things we think are necessary like a kettle, and the simplicity of having to use gas really made me feel the wonder of the outdoors and how separate we usually are from it within our daily lives. It was great to be doing something different and detached from the bustle we usually feel, getting to meet new people working together in a wonderful environment to create visible change. It lead to a real sense of accomplishment and something I’d love to go back to to see our progress grow.

If you're thinking about going along to one of the activities I'd say go for it! I'm sure you'll meet some great people and learn loads too, you can find out more about the activities and how to get in touch here.

The new Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, recently urged Doctors to suggest social prescribing such as gardening and arts activities rather than anti-depressants.

Bournemouth are one step ahead with a new project launching in late September to offer volunteering sessions within our parks to improve participant’s health and wellbeing.

In 2017 NHS figures show that 7.3 million people were prescribed antidepressants, including 70,000 children. This reveals that one in six adults were given antidepressants, arousing criticism of mass prescribing.

Hancock said: “Evidence has shown the potential benefits of approaches like social prescribing, which addresses people’s physical and mental wellbeing and has been shown to both improve patients’ quality of life and reduce pressure on other NHS services.”

A recent report by Fields in Trust, Revaluing Parks and Green Spaces, found that Parks and green spaces are estimated to save the NHS around £111 MILLION per year based solely on a reduction in GP visits.

The project aims to improve self-esteem, confidence, healthy living and physical activity for the local community, particularly people living with mental health stress.

Peter Holloway, Project Leader for Parks in Mind said: “Through participation, and using the therapeutic power of being outdoors, people will be able to meet up and talk, support each other, and, ultimately, improve their own health whilst creating better parks for their community to enjoy.

“The sessions will take place at Churchill Gardens, Knyveton Road and Shelley Park in Boscombe and Horseshoe Common in Bournemouth. The project will focus on improving people’s wellbeing through fun nature conservation and other outdoor activities designed to improve the local environment. It will also seek to promote a better understanding of mental health in the wider community.”

The project has been funded by People’s Postcode Lottery and Public Health Dorset. Rupert Lloyd, Healthy Places Project Coordinator from Public Health Dorset said: “Spending time in parks and greenspaces is good for our health and we’re excited to be part of this project to enable more people to enjoy spending time in their local park and help enhance those spaces for everyone’s enjoyment”.

For more information or if you’d like to join in the sessions please contact us.

Our first drinking fountain for pet owners and their four-legged friends has been put in place outside a popular beachside visitor centre in Bournemouth.

The drinking fountain at Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre is helping to keep dogs refreshed in the hot weather by allowing them to drink from the low bowl by either lapping up water from a pool or via a spout.

We’re really pleased to have provided this fountain at such a popular dog walking location. The fountains are great as they enable people to refill their water bottles reducing plastic as well as ensuring dogs are refreshed.

Amanda Kuhne, a dog walker pictured in the image, said: “It’s great to have such a novel, useful facility here. As you can see Mishka is loving the water – especially in this heat! Almost every time we use it, a fellow dog walker comments about how wonderful it is and how they wish every local park had one.”

We’re now fundraising for the next fountain and would like our supporters to choose which park it goes in. The three options are Kings Park, Queens Park and Fisherman’s Walk. Voting closes on August 4. To cast your vote visit https://www.quiz-maker.com/poll2012624x04e84cB0-54